Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 14.djvu/26

10 lo LIFE AND WORKS OF GOETHE

great Bossuet left the brilliant court of Louis XIV. to shut himself up in the anatomical theatre of Duverney, that he might master the secrets of organisation before writing his treatise " De la Connaissance de Dieu." ^ But there are minds, and these form the majority, to whom dry bones are dry bones, and nothing more. " How legible the book of Nature becomes to me," Goethe writes, " I cannot express to thee ; my long lessons in spelling have helped me, and now my quiet joy is inexpressible. Much as I find that is new, I find nothing unexpected ; everything fits in, because I have no system, and desire nothing but the pure truth." To help him in his spelling he began algebra ; but the nature of his mind was too unmathematical for him to pursue that study long.

Science and love were the two pillars of his exist- ence in those days. " I feel that thou art always with me," he writes ; " thy presence never leaves me. In thee I have a standard of all women, yea, of all men ; in thy love I have a standard of fate. Not that it darkens the world to me ; on the contrary, it makes the world clear; I see plainly how men are, think, wish, strive after, and enjoy ; and I give every one his due, and rejoice silently in the thought that I possess so indestructible a treasure."

The duke increased his salary by two hundred thalers, and this, with the eighteen hundred thalers received from the paternal property, made his income now thirty-two hundred thalers. He had need of money, both for his purposes and his numerous chari- ties. We have seen, in the case of Kraft, how large was his generosity ; and in one of his letters to his beloved he exclaims, " God grant that I may daily become more economical, that I may be able to do more for others." The reader knows this is not a

1 This work contains a little treatise on anatomy^ which testifies to the patience of the theologian's study.